Network Administration & Consulting Services

I’m glad to announce, that I’ve started a new blog at Techtarget.com and I really hope that this will be a great way to share with colleagues worldwide.

There are some very cool things in the works for MCPs in coming weeks. In the meantime, register for this Live Meeting on October 31 to hear from the MCP team (including Bill Wall, our director of strategy) about Microsoft Certification, new benefits for MCPs, and Q&A about the future of the MCP program. 

·  October 31 at 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time (What time is this in my region?)

·  October 31 at 5:00 P.M. Pacific Time (What time is this in my region?)

Frequently Asked Questions

Trika, WHAT THE H is this meeting all about?!#!@!?

A few cool things, I think. Really! You should attend and meet George, the chocolate martini-drinking MCP program manager.

Trika, did you know that October 31 is Halloween in many countries in the Western world and a few other places?

Yes. I bet your kids would rather attend this Live Meeting than go trick or treating, why don't you ask them.

May I attend this meeting in costume?

Yes, you may attend the meeting in costume.

What should I be for Halloween?

Ask your spouse. My recommendation is that you go as a little white lamb; a snowy-wooled native of new zealand, where there are "more sheep than people(TM)". Or, go as Mr. T. 

Trika, did you know that December 5 is Sinterklaas?

No, not until Erwin told me. MCPs in Holland, I'm very sorry for our scheduling of the WS2008 Live Meeting. But I'm excited for Sinterklaas, which I've learned celebrates "a kind of benevolent old man...by exchanging gifts and making good-natured fun of each other." Can you beat it?

In its continued commitment to interoperability, Microsoft has released a new SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP. The SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP Community Technology Preview (CTP) download is available to all SQL Server users at no additional charge. The SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP is a PHP 5 extension that allows for the reading and writing of SQL Server data from within PHP scripts. The extension provides a procedural interface for accessing data in all editions of SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000.

This CTP release has been made available for general testing purposes only. Do not deploy the CTP software in production. Peer-to-peer support is available in the SQL Server 2005 Data Access forum. To submit feedback on this CTP release, visit the SQL Server Feedback Center.

The first step is to create a registry file, let say the name of file will be Owner.reg: 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas] @="Take Ownership" "Extended"="" "NoWorkingDirectory"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command] @="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F" "IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas] @="Take Ownership" "Extended"="" "NoWorkingDirectory"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command] @="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t" "IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

Double-click your Owner.reg file to apply it to the registry.

You will have to grant access, click Continue.
The registry editor will give you a security prompt, click Yes.
You will be greeted with the following message from the registry editor, click Ok:

When you hold shift and right-click on a file or folder you will have the option of changing the ownership.

Please note that before the ownership will be changed, you must grant access, click Continue.

In order to verify that the “Take Ownership" dialog successfully processed, you can right-click on a file, choose Properties and then choose Details and you will see the “Owner” section changed to COMPUTERNAME\USERNAME.

As described in previous articles, Windows Server 2008 has an interesting option to install it with a minimal graphical user interface (or GUI for short). This method of installation is called "Server Core", and it allows an administrator to only install the minimum binaries required to run a specific server role (currently, there are 9 possible Server Core roles). You can read more about it on my "Understanding Windows Server 2008 Server Core" article.

In Windows Server 2008, Server Core installation does not include the traditional full graphical user interface (GUI). Therefore, once you have configured the server, you can only manage it locally at a command prompt, or remotely using a Terminal Serverconnection. A third management option is to manage the server remotely using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or command-line tools that support remote use.

A Server Core installation provides these benefits in three ways:

• By reducing the software maintenance required (less updates, etc...)
• By reducing the management required
• By reducing the attack surface

To accomplish this, the Server Core installation option installs only the subset of the binary files that are required by the supported server roles. It takes about 1 GB of disk space and +/- 100 MB memory footprint (varies per server core role).

The following list is a compilation of some of the most useful commands allowing you to either locally or remotely manage a Server Core installation. You can use this as a quick reference guide, but as always, reading the full server help for a full guide.

Like any other server, Windows 2008 Server Core machines must be properly configured to be able to communicate on your network. Some of these settings include:

• Configuring an IP address
• Configuring an administrator's password
• Configuring a server name
• Enabling remote MMC snap-in management
• Enabling remote RDP connections
• Enabling remote Windows Firewall management
• Enabling remote shell management
• Activating the server
• Joining a domain
• Configuring Windows Updates
• Configuring error reporting
• Adding server roles and features

I recently needed to migrate my email system to another account and discovered that users who had left the company were forwarding email to other people in the company. For the migration, I needed to know all the email addresses for which a person receives mail, including addresses of the people who forward messages to them. I found that the address an account forwards to is stored in the altrecipient attribute, so I wrote the following script to find all users with this attribute populated, then output the users' email addresses and addresses of the mailboxes forwarded to.

One of the most exciting new features of Windows Server 2008Server Core machine.

• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)
• DHCP Server
• DNS Server
• File Services
• Print Services
• Streaming Media Services
• Windows Virtualization

Almost a year ago, we released Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. Since then, IE7 is well on its way to becoming the most used browser in the world, and we’ve seen lots of evidence that IE7 makes it safer and easier to accomplish everyday tasks online. For example, the built-in Phishing Filter has protected consumers from known phishing web sites an average of 900,000 times per week.  IE7 is the first – and still the only – browser with native support for Extended Validation SSL Certificates that help prevent online fraud. (Of course, tabbed browsing, QuickTabs, shrink-to-fit printing, an easily customizable search box, CSS improvements, and some add-ons are all good things too.)

Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we’re updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users. With today’s “Installation and Availability Update,” Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users.  If you are not already running IE7, you can get it now from the Internet Explorer home page on Microsoft.com, get a customized version from a third-party site, or, if you haven’t already received it via Automatic Updates, this version will be delivered to you as we described previously. If you are already running IE7, you will not be offered IE7 again by Automatic Updates.

Additionally, we’ve made minor changes to IE7 for Windows XP based on customer feedback:

• The menu bar is now visible by default.
• The Internet Explorer 7 online tour has updated how-to’s. Also, the “first-run” experience includes a new overview.
• We’ve included a new MSI installer that simplifies deployment for IT administrators in enterprises. Learn more about it here.